Today’s Blog & Wattpad Releases

Today I challenged myself to update as many of my online portals as possible, without cutting out the prewriting phase of any project. It was a fun workday challenge, and it took me above-and-beyond my 3K word count daily goal. Here’s what I came up with:

Rydia’s Last Cure

Cleo’s Autism Awareness

When I took a break to read my Facebook feed and update myself on angry politics, I found a beautiful underwater choreography that inspired me to write another poem; and after I finished the prose poem on a Notepad file, it looked curiously like 1 of 7 reasons why I fear and love water. So I decided to write about my special interest in water at my autism awareness and self-exploration blog:

Wix

Our Cat Overlords

At this point, it’s 5:30pm, and I am drained. I believe I’ve reached the optimal amount of work I can do in a day, provided I’m not sick or hurting. Unfortunately, half the time, I’m sick or hurting, whether it’s eye-twitching and excessive need to stim, i.e. lack of proper mental self-care; or sharp pains in the nerves of my lower back, i.e. lack of physical self-care; or stomach problems; or migraines; or socially accepted illnesses like cold, flu, awful allergies, or insomnia.

But today is a good day, so on my last sputters of energy, I’m going to draft an outline of how I want to update this website for my next one-week challenge:

then Bozo (who isn’t a cat, but she’ll be in the cat novel cast anyway);

then Meeper;

then Peri & Ben.

Chase is also working on a cat print right now… We’ll debut that print, along with a handmade book, journal, and candle on Etsy and Our Cat Overlords in August, after we come home from our honeymoon. We’ll be photographing, video recording, and preparing logos for this store in July, before we get married.

Day-end Update

Kourtnie.net is the last update for the day, and you’re reading it. It’s all dinner, gardening, cats, birds, fish, and video games from here.

My Childhood

“Prewriting phase of any project…?”

Earlier I mentioned, one of the hurdles I placed on this creative challenge was including the prewriting phase in all my projects. When I write online content, I give myself a 15-minute break before I start an article: but that break must be used to fuel the idea I plan to explore in my upcoming writing goal.

If the writing project lasts more than an hour, I give myself another 15-minute break. So I’m researching 25% of the time (the pre-writing) and producing 75% of the time (the writing), which is more like 50% of the time, after you figure in cats, birds, restroom, snack, tea, gardening, stimming, answering texts, answering phone calls, chatting with Chase, applying lotions, preparing aromatherapies, nervously cleaning, and addictive drags of Love Nikki.

More often than not, I spend the 15-minute break on YouTube; but once per day, I also try to earnestly read my Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram feeds.

Last Thoughts

And speaking of all those feeds I read every day—I’ve been wanting to find a way to also only update each once per day, so I can streamline the whole social media process. I think I’ve been spending enough time focusing on increasing the flow of my writing and ideas, it’s time to fine tune my marketing mojo.

NecroBlogger & From North On

These are the only blogs I didn’t update today… So you bet I’ll be updating one of them tomorrow! It’s like Whack a’ Mole; I might as well whack the last moles next time I sit to write.

Emergence No. 7

I didn’t get to my other Wattpad projects, including my slow-burn, Emergence No. 7, and the project that shall not be named. But that’s okay!—I accomplished quite a bit, and I’m more than satisfied to call it quits at 6pm so I can enjoy meaningful dinner and rest.

Next Challenge

I’m not sure if I have it in me to do this challenge again before our wedding; but I’ll see if I can’t go on one more creative 24-hour marathon in August. It’s fun, especially when you’re in flow. It feels like an idea cleanse.

Oh, I know—I’ll do my next one after my mid-August word count check; once I see how close (are far) I am to my end-year goal of one million words, I’ll likely be electrocuted into updating all my portals. It’ll be a good jam.

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Published by Kourtnie

Kourtnie McKenzie holds an MFA (Fiction) from Fresno State and a BA in English (Literature Studies) from Cal State Fullerton. When she isn't writing novellas, she's moonlighting as a professor at Fresno City College and College of the Sequoias. To read more of her writing, visit en.gravatar.com/kourtnie.
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